What does it mean to be elephant-friendly?
Travel companies all over the world are boldly committing to move away from selling and promoting cruel elephant tourism entertainment, such as rides and shows. By doing so, they are working with World Animal Protection to transition the tourism industry towards an elephant-friendly future.
Travel companies all over the world are boldly committing to move away from selling and promoting cruel elephant tourism entertainment, such as rides and shows. By doing so, they are working with World Animal Protection to transition the tourism industry towards an elephant-friendly future.
Promoting positive, high-welfare elephant experiences
The best place to see elephants is in the wild, where they are free, or at high-welfare venues, where the elephant's physical and emotional welfare is a top priority.
World Animal Protection is working with a coalition of travel companies to convince venues to stop using elephants for tourist entertainment and transition to become high-welfare venues.
We encourage tourists to support these venues that have transitioned to become high-welfare. They are giving elephants the best possible care and allowing them to live out their lives as naturally as possible. Here you will have a truly authentic experience watching elephants behaving like elephants in their natural environment, while learning about their complex needs and how to protect them.
World Animal Protection helped the Thai venue Following Giants (previously known as Eco-tourism Recreation) transition to become a high-welfare sanctuary, moving from a venue that offers rides and hugs with elephants, to an observation-only model. Pictured: Guests watching Jahn, one of the resident elephants at Following Giants.
How to identify if a venue is high-welfare
Venues called ‘rescue center’ or ‘sanctuary’ aren’t necessarily good for elephants. Ask your travel company and use your own observations to help you judge whether a venue or activity is truly elephant-friendly. Use our checklist to help you know what to look for.
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What’s the problem with elephant rides and shows?
Elephant rides, shows and direct contact activities such as elephant bathing, are popular tourist activities in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and particularly in Thailand.
What many tourists don’t realize is the cruelty that happens behind the scenes to break an elephant’s spirit.
It doesn’t matter if the elephant was poached from the wild or bred in captivity, all baby elephants trained to interact with tourists or perform in shows are taken from their mothers, kept in isolation and beaten so they obey their handlers’ commands. The psychological trauma stays with them for the rest of their lives.
Shows and rides can also be physically demanding for the elephants and leave little opportunity for social interaction with other elephants, where in the wild they would spend 12 to 18 hours per day consuming food in close-knit family herds. This 'entertainment' schedule takes its toll. Given that elephants can live up to 80 years, the suffering they experience is extensive and long lived.
Taken for a ride: The conditions for elephants used in tourism in Asia
In World Animal Protections’ report, Taken For A Ride, we found that 77% of the 3,000 elephants used in tourist venues across Asia, were living in severely inadequate conditions with a clear correlation between those conditions and the activity being offered to tourists.
Essentially, almost all the elephants living in severely inadequate conditions were found at venues offering elephant rides. The conditions elephants endure at tourist venues that offer rides and shows, do not take into account elephants’ intelligence, behaviours and needs. These conditions include:
- Elephants typically chained day and night when not used for tourist activities and allowed only the bare minimum social interaction.
- Inadequate diets, with very little variation.
- No access to appropriate veterinary care.
- Frequently kept on concrete floors in stressful locations near loud music, roads and groups of tourists.
Join the elephant-friendly movement
Pledge your support to be an elephant-friendly tourist when you travel. You can protect these animals by reducing the demand for wild animals in entertainment.
By taking our pledge, you will also help us influence more travel companies and tour operators to stop promoting attractions that profit from elephant cruelty.
Are you a travel company looking to join our movement?
We want to hear from you! Find out how you can help lead the travel industry to protect wildlife.
Pictured: Lotus the elephant dust bathes after a river swim at Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (BLES) in Thailand. Dust bathing helps maintain the skin by reducing parasites and protecting it from the sun; it is a natural behaviour that elephants in captivity are usually unable to perform.
